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MINNEAPOLIS — When the Minnesota Timberwolves acquired Ayo Dosunmu from Chicago in February, they expected to get a strong defender and savvy offensive player. If he wants to be an elite scorer, they’ll take that, too.

Dosunmu scored a career-high 43 points, stepping up after leg injuries to Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo with the highest-scoring playoff performance by a reserve in 50 years, and the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Denver Nuggets 112-96 on Saturday night to take a 3-1 series lead.

“Ayo was just out of this world, man,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “Just play after play after play.”

The game ended with the ejections of Denver’s Nikola Jokic and Minnesota’s Julius Randle after Jokic became angry when Jaden McDaniels made a meaningless layup with 2.1 seconds remaining and confronted the Wolves’ swingman near his bench.

Jamal Murray led Denver with 30 points. Jokic added 24 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists. The Nuggets were just 6 for 27 from 3-point range.

The Wolves have won the last three games and can end the series in Game 5 on Monday night in Denver.

“I expect us to have a great effort in Game 5,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said. “I really trust our two best players will find a rhythm, and they have to find that at home.”

Jokic and Murray were 6 of 24 from the field in the second half.

“We had the opportunity to score easier, get open looks, and we didn’t,” Jokic said. “And in the fourth quarter the momentum is on their side. They were making shots, they were playing with some energy and we didn’t have that.”

Dosunmu made 13 of 17 shots, going 5 of 5 from 3-point range, and all 12 of his free throws in a season-high 42 minutes.

“He goes places quick. He’s an unbelievable finisher. He makes big shots,” Finch said. “He’s not afraid. Just was going to ride him until he collapsed, really.”

It was the best performance by a sub since Fred Brown scored 45 off the bench for Seattle in a 116-111 loss to Phoenix on April 15, 1976.

“I know it sounds cliche, but I can’t and won’t take this moment for granted,” Dosunmu said, “because I understand how long and how hard it is to get here.”

The Nuggets led by seven in the third quarter before the Timberwolves used a disruptive defense to get back into the game. Bones Hyland and Dosunmu scored breakaway layups on consecutive possessions after Minnesota forced the Nuggets to turn it over near halfcourt — two of nine second-half turnovers for the Nuggets.

Randle added a steal and fast-break dunk to put the Wolves up by four after three quarters.

Dosunmu had another steal and layup as part of a 9-0 run early in the fourth quarter that gave Minnesota a 95-82 lead. The basket that pushed the lead into double digits was a 3-pointer by 38-year-old Mike Conley, who played 20 minutes while filling in for DiVincenzo and Edwards.

The Lakers aim to close out their first round series against the Houston Rockets on Sunday

The purple and gold are looking to sweep an opponent in the playoffs for the first time since May 2010.

Start time and TV schedule

Who: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Houston Rockets

When: 6:30 p.m. PT, Apr. 26

Where: Toyota Center

Watch: NBC, Peacock

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Just like that, the Lakers are one win away from advancing to the Western Conference semifinals. They’ve shocked the world with their performance over the last three games, but their rising to the occasion is nothing new.

The Lakers’ challenge in Game 3 was to counter the Rockets’ strongest response yet and they successfully did so. In Game 4, it’s going to be about closing the series and putting this young Rockets team to bed. That itself is going to be a different challenge, but perhaps the biggest advantage that Los Angeles now has is that they’ve snatched away Houston’s fighting spirit — at least that’s what it seems.

Over the last three games, the Lakers have continuously proven that they’re just the better team, even without two of their best players. It’s still extremely weird typing that but that’s what happens when the team has LeBron James, Marcus Smart and experienced role players. The chemistry — especially during clutch time — that the team worked so hard to build during the regular season is one of the reasons why they’re on top right now.

On Sunday, the Lakers are going to need their chemistry and composure to be in full effect more than ever. It’s uncertain how these Rockets will approach this one given that they don’t seem confident that they can get back in the series. But what’s certain is that no team wants to be swept, so there’s a good chance that Houston will go all out in this one, especially since they’re composed of young players all around.

With Kevin Durant’s status up in the air again, expect Alperen Şengün to lead the Rockets’ offense. He did a good job doing so in Game 3, but it obviously wasn’t enough. What’s going unnoticed in this series is how the Lakers have kept up with the Rockets in what the latter does best, which is controlling the paint and outexecuting them on defense. Los Angeles will have to double down on this to close out the series.

Maybe the Rockets play like a team that knows they’re down 0-3 and doesn’t want to travel to Los Angeles anymore. What we do know is that this Lakers team will be determined to sweep this series. Let’s see if the purple and gold book their ticket to the semifinals on Sunday.

Notes and Updates

• The Lakers’ injury report remains identical as Game 3 with Austin Reaves (left oblique muscle strain) listed as questionable. Luka Dončić (left hamstring strain) noted as out.
• The same goes for the Rockets, as Fred VanVleet (ACL surgery) and Steven Adams (left ankle surgery) are indicated as out while Kevin Durant (left ankle sprain) is questionable.

You can follow Nicole on Twitter at @nicoleganglani.

In one of the most insane games in the history of Target Center, the Minnesota Timberwolves took down the Denver Nuggets 112-96 in Game 4 to take a 3-1 series lead.

Unfortunately, the outcome of the game felt like a side story most of the night. A little more than a minute into the game, Donte DiVincenzo took a false step back and appeared to suffer a catastrophic lower-leg injury. Shams Charania of ESPN later confirmed the worst, a torn Achilles for DiVincenzo.

DiVincenzo was taken out of Target Center in a wheelchair with a boot on his right leg and a hoodie draped over his head.

Timberwolves Head Coach Chris Finch was choked up discussing DiVincenzo’s injury: “He’s the heart and soul of everything we do. We love him and will be there for him.”

The devastating blows didn’t stop there. Just before the end of the first half, Anthony Edwards came down awkwardly on his left leg and appeared to hyperextend it. Charania reported that Edwards will undergo tests on his left knee, the opposite side from the runner’s knee Edwards has been dealing with in this series and down the stretch of the regular season.

And Anthony Edwards is set to undergo tests on his injured left knee. He had been playing through runner's knee in his other knee. The Timberwolves starting guards sustain injuries in the first half tonight in Game 4 against Denver. https://t.co/ipDf2LPRLS

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 26, 2026

With the potential for the game to spiral, the Wolves didn’t allow the game to get out of hand and only trailed by four points at halftime.

With the halftime break to reset their rotations and emotions, the Timberwolves began to fight back. Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels locked back down on Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray while Mike Conley, Kyle Anderson, and Terrence Shannon Jr. joined the rotation.

Late in the third quarter and into the fourth, the Wolves went on a 21-6 run, turning a two-point deficit into a 13-point lead as they appeared to break the Nuggets’ and Jokić’s will, who struggled yet again with an 8-22 shooting night.

The Timberwolves’ best player on the night was far and away Ayo Dosunmu, who played the best game of his young career. Dosunmu finished with a career-high 43 points on 13-17 shooting, the third most efficient 40-point playoff game in the history of the NBA.

The dagger came from Dosunmu with a minute and a half left in the game when he pulled up for a 3-pointer above Tim Hardaway Jr. and screamed, “I’m Him!” to the Timberwolves faithful.

Ayo Dosunmu deep pull-up 3 BANG pic.twitter.com/uOXipRjhST

— Timberwolves Clips (@WolvesClips) April 26, 2026

“I didn’t know he was that damn good,” Randle said of Dosunmu. “I ain’t gonna lie to you. I was in the East, but I don’t remember playing against him. That was DeMar/LaVine teams. I don’t know if the opportunity was there. But, damn, I’m glad we got him.”

The two teams would play out the string from there, but not before a little bit more drama, par for the course in this rivalry. With three seconds remaining in the game, instead of dribbling, McDaniels, in classic Jaden McDaniels fashion, laid the ball in the hoop instead of dribbling the clock out.

That decision, foreshadowed by a McDaniels dunk as the end of Game 7 two years ago between these two teams, caused Jokić to come running down the court for a fight that led to the ejection of both Jokić and Julius Randle.

NUGGETS VS. WOLVES FIGHT

OH MY GOODNESS. 🍿🍿🍿 pic.twitter.com/YSFx0kXq5X

— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) April 26, 2026

McDaniels, of course, broke an unwritten rule of basketball by not dribbling the game out, but for Jokić to take such exception to the play is a rough look, given the scoreboard, who was out for the Wolves, and his play in this series, especially on the defensive end.

Where this series and the rest of these playoffs go from here for the Timberwolves is still up in the air. What is certain is that tonight’s game was one of the most memorable nights in the history of Timberwolves basketball.

Finch summed up the season to this point following the game. “[The players] kept telling me it would be different when we get [to the playoffs]. Game 1 wasn’t any different, so we jumped their ass. They lied to us. And they responded.”

This whole season, there have been valid criticisms of the Timberwolves from the players on the roster, their fit together, and the coaching staff’s ability to find the best out of the team. What can no longer be questioned about this team is their heart.

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Up Next

The Timberwolves will take on the Nuggets for Game 5 in Denver on Monday at 9:30 PM CT with a chance to close out the series. Fans can watch the game on NBC and Peacock. The status for both Edwards and Aaron Gordon, who also left this game early, is up in the air.

Highlights

Originally, I figured that the most 2026 Houston Rockets thing that could happen is what happened in Game 3: take a sizable lead into the final moments and blow the game, culminating in an overtime loss. The poor play in clutch situations has defined this team, and their 20+ blown fourth quarter leads this year is the evidence.

The Rockets have been the arbiters of hope this season, constantly getting leads and then promptly blowing them in the most heartbreaking fashions imaginable. And it just kept happening. You figure that at some point they would learn from their mistakes, or that the sheer amount of experience would be a boon. “Hey, we’ve all been in this situation before and we’ve all been the reason we lost one of these games. So let’s just do our best and trust each other.” Something, anything that takes terrible experiences and uses them as fuel for the next time a similar event occurs.

And in sports, that’s usually what happens. Teams struggle to get over the hump but get better and more hardened and eventually either blow up or successfully summit the mountain. That’s the blueprint we’ve seen time and time again.

But no team has toyed with its fans’ emotions more than the Houston Rockets. Now 1-8 in overtime, the Rockets have blown just about every sort of game that is possible. 20-point fourth quarter lead? Yep. 99.9% chance of winning based on your favorite site’s analytics? They’ve blown that too. Up double digits in overtime? They lost. Up 6 with 30 seconds left at home in the biggest game of the season? They almost lost in regulation!

Every time we’ve been ready to give up on the Rockets, they show us their talent and put together a few games where you think, “Oh maybe they figured it out!” But then they promptly remind everyone that they have not, in fact, figured it out.

So I can’t decide which way to lose this series would be the most 2026 Rockets. I’m hoping for the sweet release of death when it comes to this season, so we know that won’t happen easily. Either the Rockets will once again blow a big lead just for old time’s sake, OR they will fight back in this series and win the next three games. They will look really good and give Rockets fans hope that they’ll become the first NBA team to ever overcome a 3-0 deficit. They’ll be up 20 in the fourth quarter of Game 7. Staples Center will be dead silent. Luka Doncic will be on the bench. Austin Reaves will not be 100%. LeBron James will look old and defeated by Father Time.

And then Luke Kennard will hit a 3. Then Marcus Smart and Rui Hachimura will hit a couple. Jaxson Hayes will throw down a dunk and the lead will be single digits and the building will be rocking. LeBron will return, having gotten plenty of rest after JJ Reddick had originally thrown in the towel. And Houston will lose in overtime.

Yeah, that sounds like these Rockets.

Tip-off

8:30pm CT

How To Watch

NBC/Peacock

Injury Report

Rockets

Steven Adams: OUT

Fred VanVleet: OUT

Kevin Durant: questionable

Lakers

Luka Doncic: OUT

Austin Reaves: questionable

The Line (as of this post)

HOU -4.5

Check here for updates

Looking ahead because we can

If necessary, Game 5 on Wednesday in Los Angeles

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Paolo Banchero and Desmond Bane each scored 25 points, and the Orlando Magic blew a 17-point fourth-quarter lead before rallying to beat the Detroit Pistons 113-105 on Saturday for a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series.

Banchero had 12 rebounds and nine assists. Franz Wagner scored 17 points for Orlando, which got 15 from Jalen Suggs and a 14-point, 17-rebound game from Wendell Carter Jr.

Cade Cunningham scored 27 for Detroit, which trailed 96-79 with 8:34 left — then outscored the Magic 26-8 over the next six minutes to grab the lead. But the Pistons, who got 23 points from Tobias Harris, couldn’t hold on.

Game 4 is Monday night in Orlando.

It’s the 13th time since 1984, when the NBA went to the 16-team format, that a No. 8 seed has taken a 2-1 lead in a first-round series over a No. 1 seed.

Of the previous 12, five finished off the upset. Those teams: Miami in 2023, Philadelphia in 2012, Memphis in 2011, Golden State in 2007 and New York in 1999. And that doesn’t include Denver’s upset of Seattle in 1994, the first 8-over-1 series win in NBA history.

The Magic — who had to win an elimination game at home just over a week ago to escape the play-in tournament — are trying to be the next name on that list.

THUNDER 121, SUNS 109

PHOENIX (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 42 points in a brilliant shooting performance, Ajay Mitchell added 15 in place of the injured Jalen Williams and Oklahoma City beat Phoenix to take a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference first-round series.

Gilgeous-Alexander — the league’s reigning MVP — hit 15 of 18 shots on a variety of tough looks, frustrating a Suns defense that actually played decently for much of the game. Alex Caruso added 13 points off the bench while Chet Holmgren had 10 points, seven rebounds and two blocks.

The defending champion Thunder will go for the sweep in Game 4 on Monday in Phoenix.

Dillon Brooks led the Suns with 33 points on 11-of-21 shooting while Jalen Green added 26.

Oklahoma City took an 87-79 lead after three quarters and never trailed in the fourth. Gilegous-Alexander hit a difficult fallaway 19-foot jumper to put the Thunder up 102-87 with about five minutes left, deflating the Suns crowd and pretty much ending any hope for a comeback.

KNICKS 114, HAWKS 98

ATLANTA (AP) — Karl-Anthony Towns had his first postseason triple-double, OG Anunoby scored 22 points and New York recovered after back-to-back losses to beat Atlanta, tying the Eastern Conference playoff series at 2-2.

Towns had 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. The 11th-year All-Star became the fourth Knicks player to record a triple-double in a playoff game, joining Walt Frazier, Dick McGuire and Josh Hart.

The Knicks host Game 5 at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, and the series is now guaranteed to return to Atlanta for Game 6 on Thursday.

New York took control of the game midway through the first quarter and maintained the lead for the rest of the game. The Knicks held a 68-44 advantage at halftime and extended that lead to 20 points by the end of the third quarter.

New York, who had one-point losses in the previous two games, returned to form behind its core of Towns, Anunoby and Jalen Brunson, who scored 19 points.

TIMBERWOLVES 112, NUGGETS 96

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Ayo Dosunmu scored a career-high 43 points, stepping up after leg injuries to Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo with the highest-scoring playoff performance by a reserve in 50 years, and Minnesota beat Denver.

The Timberwolves took a 3-1 lead in the series in a game that ended with ejections of Denver’s Nikola Jokic and Minnesota’s Julius Randle after Jokic became angry when Jaden McDaniels made a meaningless layup with 2.1 seconds remaining and confronted the Wolves’ swingman near his bench.

The story before that was Dosunmu, who had the best performance by a sub since Fred Brown scored 45 off the bench for Seattle in a 116-111 loss to Phoenix on April 15, 1976.

At the end of an emotional game in which the Minnesota Timberwolveslost two players to injury, tempers flared and a pair of stars were ejected.

It started with just 1.3 seconds left in Game 4, when the outcome was already decided. But the Timberwolves, looking to burn the clock, tossed the ball up to forward Jaden McDaniels. Rather than dribble it out for the end of the game, McDaniels put up an uncontested layup to push Minnesota’s lead to 16 points.

Denver Nuggets All-Star center and NBA Most Valuable Player finalist Nikola Jokić took exception to the layup and rushed over from half court to confront McDaniels, eventually getting in McDaniels’ face.

NUGGETS VS. WOLVES FIGHT

OH MY GOODNESS. 🍿🍿🍿 pic.twitter.com/YSFx0kXq5X

— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) April 26, 2026

McDaniels grabbed Jokić by the jersey as the two got tangled up, leading to teammates and assistants getting in between the pair to break it up. The incident took place right in front of the Timberwolves’ bench.

Eventually, both players were separated, and both Jokic and McDaniels were ejected.

“Because he scored when everybody stopped playing,” Jokić said after the game. “Come on, guys, you saw it, what happened.”

Asked later if he regretted running up to confront McDaniels, Jokić shook his head and stressed that he didn’t.

The Timberwolves won the game, 112-96, taking a 3-1 lead over Denver in the first-round playoff series.

“I’m proud of the guys stepping up and fighting for each other, literally and figuratively,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch told reporters after the game. “These teams don’t like each other — it’s no secret. I mean, you play each other this many times when things are at stake … it’s just how it goes.

“When you play each other this many times, you’re gonna get these things. You just are.”

The NBA has strict rules about players who are not actively playing in a game leaving the bench area during altercations. Players who do leave the bench are subject to an automatic suspension of at least one game. Fines are also factored into the discipline for leaving the bench.

Initial video of the incident Saturday night showed that Nuggets star forward Aaron Gordon left the bench in an attempt to break it up.

“Obviously, I didn’t like what McDaniels did,” Nuggets coach David Adelman told reporters after the game. “The game was over. The game was conceded both ways. In 2026 that stuff just doesn’t happen anymore. That stuff happened in the ‘80s, where teams would continue to score. But that’s who he is. And so if that’s what they want to do, that’s what they want to do. It has nothing to do with the win or the loss.”

“More importantly, no suspensions for us,” Adelman said. “I didn’t see anything out of line. Obviously, they’ll have the Hawkeye view of the whole thing, but from what I saw, from my standpoint, I saw Jok get into it with (McDaniels) toward the middle of the scrum, and then both guys were ejected.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fight breaks out late in Timberwolves' playoff win vs. Nuggets

The Los Angeles Lakers will have the opportunity to complete a sweep of the Houston Rockets after taking a 3-0 lead in the NBA playoff first-round series.

The Lakers have found success in the postseason without Luka Doncic, who has missed time due to a hamstring injury.

He suffered the injury on April 2 in a blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. He has not played in a game since.

Doncic led the NBA in points per game with 33.5 this season. He was also third with 8.3 assists per game. 

The Lakers have not swept a playoff series since beating the Utah Jazz 4-0 in the 2009-10 Western Conference semifinals.

Will Luka Doncic play Game 4 for Lakers?

Doncic was ruled out for Game 4 on Sunday, April 24, by the Lakers. He was with the team in Houston on Friday.

When do Lakers play next?

The Lakers will play the Houston Rockets on Sunday, April 26 at 6:30 p.m. PT (9:30 p.m. ET). The game will be streamed on Peacock.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lakers star Luka Doncic ruled out for Game 4 vs. Rockets